Below is a sample of some of the government funded projects we, you and I, are paying for. Making the 2012 list are a $1.5 million grant to the University of Utah to study building a better computer gaming joystick, $100,000 to send a three-member American comedy troupe on a tour of India, and part of a $325,000 grant used to build a robotic squirrel, all to test whether it could scare a real snake. The National Institutes of Health spent $939,771 on a study to discover that a male fruit fly, given the choice between a young female and an older female fly, chose the younger. Waterloo, Iowa, is spending $145,000 in federal taxpayersâ money to put a statue of Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of the 31st president, in a new roadside park at the site of the Hooversâ former home. Important projects, no doubt. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/15/coburn-says-government-full-wasteful-spending/
Here is another good one. Amtrak, which taxpayers finance, is losing over $80 million every year just on its food and beverage service. I don't understand how this is possible. They have a captive audience (the customer isn't getting off the train to buy elsewhere) and can charge what ever they want. So, how can they lose money? It doesn't pass the smell test. According to the newly revised Heritage Foundation report, "Federal Spending by the Numbers," the rail service lost $84.5 million alone on its food and beverage services in 2011, and $833.8 million over the past 10 years. "It has never broken even on these services," said Heritage.
Had the misfortune of riding on those shithole trains some years back. Some of the mangiest people you'd ever want to meet were on that thing...A Greyhound on the rails. The food was worse than any school cafeteria you would care to remember. About the only thing that I found half way decent was a $5 or $7 hot dog (can't remember the exact price). All of the prices resembled what you'd find at a Major League ballpark. I think even a Ramen Noodles was $4-$5. Sounds to me like somebody is unloading the crates before they make it to the trains. Just more bullshit and corruption as far as I can tell.
My wife and I took an Amtrak trip from Charlotte to Raleigh. She had a broken foot with a cast & boot. We walked the entire length of the train trying to find a seat to sit together on. Every seat was full with almost all taken by one person instead of two. Absolutely nobody offered to sit next to another passenger they were traveling with so we could sit together. And who could blame them? *I* wouldn't want to sit next to any of those losers either.
I took one once from Omaha to Denver. It was a night trip. In the middle of the night I woke up because we were stopped on some side track. for what seemed like hours. I don't think we ever went faster than 30 miles per hour. Needless to say, an 8 hour trip was 6 hours late. I'll never get on another Amtrak train. And, I agree. Someone is skimming some money or some product somewhere in the food service.
The worse part of it is that it is cheaper to get airfare from Raleigh to D.C. or Raleigh to New York then it is to pay for an Amtrak ticket. Who in their right mind would ride a complete failute of a train system at sky high prices.